HRM employee training

Employee training is a significant HRM activity. It involves constructing a set of activities that are aimed to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills of employees so that they can improve on their current job performance and contribute to the achievement of organisational goals (Jackson and Marsden, 1994). Human resource managers recognise that training offers a way of enhancing productivity and quality of work, developing skills and building loyalty to the firm, as it helps to retain a competent and efficient workforce.
Providing effective training to employees is a key issue that human resource managers need to focus on when it comes to training and development. In a research article by Sahinidis and Bouris (2008), one of the key factors addressed, was the importance of an organisation recognizing that its employees are not effective and making a change in their knowledge, skills and attitudes. The authors place a great deal of emphasis on the impact of adopting the most suitable training intervention, which will fulfill specific needs, enhance employee willingness to participate and meet their expectations. When an organisation becomes aware of the gap between the desired and the actual performance of their employees, it becomes their responsibility to identify which areas or skills of task performance their employees need to trained in or to improve upon. It is vital that the HR manager implements suitable training activities, such as active participation, listening, seeing and discussion, which will increase employee knowledge, skills and attitudes. This article strongly argues that whether it is through the adoption of a training program or the employee belief that there is an improvement in their knowledge and skills, there will be an improvement in the person’s individual performance. However, it fails to exert how different types of training (formal and informal, on-the-job and off-the-job) can be used in a variety of ways to reinforce the training content.
On the other hand, Jackson and Marsden (1994), inform their readers that formal training can reinforce an employee’s competencies. They contend that employees who learn in planned and structured training sessions are able to execute tasks assigned effectively and efficiently because they are well prepared and equipped for such situations. As a result, this will increase the overall performance of the organisation and expand the level of skills and competences at all levels across the business. Jackson and Marsden (1994), stress that if organisations are to survive and compete in both local and global markets, they need to recognise training as both an investment in personal and professional development, and a contributor towards stronger business performance and productivity. However, what they fail to discuss is that in an era of intense employee mobility (Cheramie, Struman & Walsh, 2007), companies are faced with the dilemma of investing and training employees only to have them use their training to increase their own market value and employment opportunity, at the company’s expense. It is thus, undeniably important to take into consideration the negative repercussions to companies investing in training and development and understand why employers are more likely to become hesitant.
Furthermore, Bramley (1989) argues that effective training not only makes employees more valuable to the organisation, it also attracts potential future employees of the highest caliber to the organisation, as well as increasing the amount of loyalty employees have towards the business. His argument is highly supported by that of Syedain (1995), who states that organisations are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of loyalty to the organisation by their employees, and have started to put into place employee recognition schemes to make sure that employees remain loyal to the business. These complementary viewpoints highlight the importance of loyalty in an age where employees (particularly the y generation) change jobs so frequently is crucial, and how it can save organisations the time and resources of having to put employees through several training procedures such as induction and health and safety training repeatedly. Bramley (1989) emphasizes how people instinctively feel the need for self-improvement, and when searching for a new job, they want to find a career that can improve themselves and has potential advancement opportunities. Many organisations have now become aware of employees’ inner drive for self-improvement, and thus, larger organisations have now started building a high caliber training program to attract the best and brightest applicants (Jackson and Marsden, 1994). This showcases how not only does effective training have a strong effect on the current employees of the organisation, but also a profound effect on attracting the most skillful applicants.

While effective training has many benefits, the fundamental aim and intention of training is to improve employee skills so that they are better equipped to handle the tasks that they are employed to do. Bramley (1989) also adds that employees will have better skills as a result of the effective training, and as a consequence they are able to complete their tasks to the highest degree. This will mean that organisations can now produce better quality of products and services for their customers; hence the quality of work has been directly impacted by the effective training. While the positives of training normally outweigh the negatives, it is noted by Leimbach (1994) that the cost of training can be quite expensive, especially when conducted on a larger scale such as organisational training. His analysis of the costs and benefits of training are effective in helping readers to understand what organisations need to consider before they decided to provide training to their employees. It assures that the benefits of training are significant and outweigh the costs such as wasting valuable resources like time and money. Bramley (1989) adds to the argument of Leimbach (1994) that it should be a main concern to managers that employees are not wasting their time, or the organisations’ resources, by being taught or trained in something that they will not be able to put into practice in their day to day work activities.
Bates and Davis (2010) emphasize that “managers/trainees often leave training sessions feeling that there was “too much theory,” (p. 770). This consequently becomes an issue for managers in a way that if trainees feel that there is too much theory in the training process they go through; they will not thoroughly engage and listen. Bates and Davis (2010), go on to further stress that employees “want training that is directly transferable from the training seminar to the job without thought or effort on their part.” (p. 771). Not only would it become an issue for the trainees, it would also become a worry to trainers/managers in a way that, they will need to change their whole approach on how they will present training programs to their existing or new recruits. In contrast, evidence presented by Boyatzis, Leonard, Rhee and Wheeler (1996), shows that “an examination of the outcomes of management development programs conducted by many organizations reveals that managers/trainees going through those programs often are unable to transfer the training to the work environment”. To avoid such dilemmas Hartel and Fugitmoto (2010) provides awareness to managers and trainers by stating “to be successful in the training process the manager/organisor should have knowledge of (1) the content or task itself; (2) the learning objectives; (3) the learner’s characteristics; and (4) the time and cost requirements,” (p.246 ).
Furthermore, another alternative which Bates and Davis (2010) outline is the Application Bridge. “The “Application Bridge” concept can be used to improve the effectiveness of training in various situations. The underlying purpose is to explain—as fully as possible early in the training seminar—the roles and responsibilities of both the trainer and trainees (managers), thus avoiding the trainees’ expectation of being spoon fed” (p.772). From this, it can be seen as helpful if the set of mutual responsibilities were explained thoroughly, to both employees and managers, so that there is a clear understanding of responsibility within the organisation and everyone can work together towards achieving organisational goals. This will assist in assuring that the organisation maintains a competent and efficient workforce, where the employees feel valued due to their share of responsibility and sense of duty in the workplace.

Organisations that provide affective training programs are able to increase the knowledge, attitudes and skills of their employees (Jacksons and Marsden, 1994). Successful training programs will lead to increasing productivity levels in the workplace, as well as increased quality of work and range of skills amongst employees. In addition, the corporate culture of the company is strengthened as employees feel valued and this builds the loyalty within the organisation, retaining a competent and efficient workforce.

REFERNCE LIST
Bates, D. L., & Davis, T. J. (2010). The Application Bridge: A Model for Improving Trainee Engagement in the Training Process. International Journal of Management, 27, 770-776.

Bramley, P. (1989). Effective training. Journal of European Industrial Training, 13(7), 1-33.

Boyatzis, R. E., Leonard, D., Rhee, K., and Wheeler, J. V. (1996). Competencies can be developed, but not in the way we thought. Capability, 2, 25-41.
Cheramie, R.A., Sturman, M.C. and Walsh, K. (2007). Executive career management: switching organizations and the boundaryless career. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 71, 359-374.
Hartel, E. & Fujimoto, Y. (2010), Human resource management 2nd ed., Frenchs Forest, NSW, Pearson Education Australia.

Jackson, D.J. & Marsden, A.W. (1994). Responding to competence requirements with relevant and effective training and development programmes. Industrial and Commercial Training, 26(7), 8-24.
Leimbach, M. (1994). A return on investment model for evaluating training. Training and Development in Australia, 5-7.

Sahinidis, A.G. & Bouris, J. (2008). Employee perceived training effectiveness relationship to employee attitudes. Journal of European Industrial Training, 32(1), 63.
Syedain, H. (1995). The rewards of recognition. Management Today, 72-74.